An organic appreciation of Jeanette Fitzsimons

Jeanette Fitzsimons died three weeks before New Zealand went into Alert Level 4 total lockdown to try to stop the spread of the corona virus, covid-19. As I write this during the lockdown, I keep thinking about how much I would like to be writing or talking to Jeanette about what’s happening, because its causes and its impacts touch on the deepest concerns of her life and political activity. She would have much wise counsel to offer on where things have come from and where they might be going.

I have been the beneficiary of such counsel since 1978, when I first met Jeanette. In that year I was the administrator of the Environmental Defence Society, based in Auckland.